Rush week, Facebook group create unique business opportunity
Rush week, a week dominated by recruiting young men and women to their respected Greek letter organization, turned into the rush of a lifetime for Missouri State students Sam Fuson and Elijah Baig.
Fuson and Baig are co-owners of Springy Jeans: a business started on the social media app Instagram. The thought of creating a business after customizing a pair of thrifted jeans never occurred to the two.
“We actually had no intention of starting a business. Before coming to college, Elijah had convinced me to get a pair of old Levi’s and we just cut them up a little. I wore that pair to rush week and had tons of girls asking me to make them some,” said Fuson, a fashion merchandising major.
Fuson sourced and distressed a few pairs of jeans and planned to post them to the popular Facebook group “Missouri State Gals Sell Your Stuff,” where she and Baig saw the business grow into what eventually became Springy Jeans on Instagram.
“We made Springy Jeans with the intention of only selling jeans we pre-cut and distressed, but quickly realized it would be more fun to do custom distressing and sell other vintage items as well,” Fuson said.
With a social following of nearly 6,800, Fuson and Baig have made Springy Jeans a top priority, punching out customized denim orders in as little as a few days.
“It kind of took off and we decided to try and make it a more real kind of thing, so we made it our full time jobs, started posting new things daily and shipping all over,” Fuson said.
The two have started dedicating whole days and weekends to finding the best quality items for their customers.
“It takes continuous effort to keep it going for sure. We’re both very dedicated and spend the majority of our time curating the page and sourcing new items,” said Baig, a business marketing major. “We’re constantly trying to improve whether it’s better pictures, faster shipping, new styles, or better customer service. Everything we’ve done thus far has worked for us. Our followers and customers seem to love the progress.”
Since the Fuson and Baig have different majors, they are able to bring in different aspects to the fashion industry to help continue the success of their business.
Fuson feels their majors run together perfectly for their business.
“I just recently changed my major to fashion merchandising this year, but so far it has been beneficial being in the fashion department because I get to learn more in depth about how the industry works and about clothing, photoshop, and what goes into being a successful business,” Fuson said. “Our two majors go perfectly into helping us run Springy Jeans since we can kind of bounce the knowledge off of each other and work together on everything.”
Baig feels his major has taught him important aspects to running an online business.
“It has a huge role in Springy as it has taught me so much about business, especially the marketing aspect, as it is a major aspect of running an online business,” Baig said. “[It has taught me] how important it is to value our customers, the need to plan and be organized, to know your numbers, and just other good business practices. It’s served as a blue print to build off of. It’s been cool learning on one end and applying things on the other!”
With their newfound success, Fuson and Baig hope to open their own store after graduation and eventually incorporate their own designs. They plan to incorporate Springy Jeans branded stickers, keychains, hats and crewnecks.
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